What's A Little Kiss Between Friends?
by Emminou
Summary: [Next Chapter Up] No matter how hard she tries, Ginny can't seem to get over Harry Potter. Until...
1. Prelude

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Prelude

Ginny dumped her books as far as she could from Harry Potter in the crowded Gryffindor common room.

"Over here, Colin," she called. Her best friend, Colin Creevey, came rushing over, carrying a large pile of heavy-looking books.

He sat down, looking slightly confused. "Ginny, why'd you choose to-"

She scowled at him.

"-oh, never mind..." He looked away, blushing slightly. Ginny sighed, and picked up her very battered copy of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi._

It was no use: no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't forget the look in Harry's eyes whenever he glanced at Cho Chang. She closed her eyes, but that made it worse - he sprang into her mind immediately, his emerald-green eyes shining. _It's not fair. Why won't he look at _me_ that way?_

With a sigh, she put her Herbology homework to one side. It was too hard, she just couldn't concentrate with _him _in the same room as her, no matter how far away he was. If she could see him - The beginnings of tears prickled in her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily.

"Ginny?" asked Colin. "Ginny? Are you okay?"

She half-shook her head, then nodded. "Do you mind working in the library? It's just I can't concentrate in here."

__

Or anywhere I can see Harry Potter, she added to herself.


	2. Chapter One

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Chapter One

Apparently Ginny can't concentrate in here, either, Colin thought, watching her shuffle pieces of parchment around her half of the desk.

"Do you want any help with that?"

Ginny looked up from her Divination homework, which she had been decorating with a hugely ornate heart. "Huh?" she said vaguely.

"Do you need any help with that work?" Colin repeated.

For a few moments, the young witch seemed to stare straight through him, then, suddenly, she snapped back to the present. "If you _can_," she grinned. "But you know Divination's not your thing."

It was true: Colin had only taken up Divination because his idol, Harry Potter, had. He also had the misfortune not to understand it any better than Harry.

Ginny flicked a strand of red-gold hair behind her ear. "Come on, then."

Colin wondered, for what felt like the hundredth time that afternoon, whether anything was wrong with Ginny. But when she prodded him with her wand, causing a few small flowers to grow out of his wrist, he put his concerns to one side. Plucking the daisies off his arm, he resolved to ask Hermione later. _She would know,_ he thought admiringly. _Hermione knows everything. And she's so kind, too._

Even so, the thought of speaking to Hermione was terrifying. She was, after all, a whole year above him; a fifth year, busy with her O.W.Ls, and a prefect, too. Would she really want to bother with him?

Ginny tapped him with her wand again. Unfortunately, this time, her wand set his cloak on fire.

***

When they finally managed to put the flames out, and Madam Pince had finished lecturing them, Ginny and Colin returned to the Gryffindor common room.

The Fat Lady gave Colin a very peculiar look when she asked for the password. She wasn't the only one; the small group of people still in the common room - who happened to include Ron, Harry and Hermione - stared at him curiously when he crawled through the portrait hole.

"I'm going to my dorm," Ginny said awkwardly. Colin nodded, and she vanished through the door to the girls' wing disconcertingly fast.

The various other Gryffindor students were still looking at him oddly. Blushing, he drew the remains of his cloak around himself, and approached Hermione, Ron and Harry.

"Hermione," he said, "can I talk to you in private for a moment?" His voice seemed to have gone a little squeaky, and he was having trouble getting the words out.

She was plainly wondering what he'd have to say to her. Colin felt a momentary surge of shame. He'd _known_ it was stupid, hoping Hermione would want to speak to him...

"It's about Ginny," he added.

Hermione sighed, pushing her frizzy brown hair out of her face. "If it's about Ginny, shouldn't you be speaking to Ron?"

"Umm... well, no..." Colin muttered, in an embarrassed sort of way. "I really need _your_ opinion on this, Hermione."

Putting her pen down, Hermione stood up. "I'll be right back," she said to her two friends.

Colin crossed the room, and sat down at the same desk Ginny had chosen earlier. "Well, you see, it's like this... uh, Ginny, well, she seems to be, er, really... weird... and I, well, I think something's wrong with her... and I thought, because you're so, uh, smart and everything... could you tell me what the problem is?"

Hermione gave him another very odd look. "Colin, could you please run that past me again? This time in plain English?"

He blushed again. "I think there's... well, something wrong with Ginny. She's not her usual self... and I was hoping you could, uh, tell me what it is?"

"Colin," Hermione said exasperatedly, "can you tell me a little bit about Ginny's problem?"

He looked at the desktop miserably. _Why can't I act normal in front of Hermione?_

"Ginny sometimes goes a little bit... daydreamy..." mumbled Colin. "And I've seen her staring odd-"

He stopped mid-sentence. Hermione was examining the desk carefully, and, if he wasn't mistaken, she was blushing.

"Hermione? Do you know what's wrong with her?"

Hermione muttered a reply.

"What?"

She looked up from the desk for a second. "Colin, Ginny has a, well..." Now it was her turn to be uncomfortable. It seemed to Colin as if she was looking for the right words.

"Well... she has..." Hermione stopped again.

"Perhaps it would be easier if you wrote it down?" Colin suggested, fumbling in his pockets for a piece of parchment, and remembering too late that any parchment in his robes would probably have been incinerated.

Hermione pulled a quill and some parchment out of her robes, and scribbled something down. "Here you go, Colin."

He reached out for it, but Hermione grabbed his wrist. "Ow!" he mumbled. She turned his wrist over, revealing scorch marks from his burnt up cloak.

"What happened here, Colin?" she asked seriously.

He turned to one side, not wanting to look at her. It was too embarrassing. "I got burnt."

"I can see that. Oh, Colin, haven't you been to see Madam Pomfrey?"

She knew the answer before he told her. "Come on, we're going to go see her. Those burns need some kind of ointment."

Despite his protests, Hermione managed to drag Colin out of the room with a little help from Ron and Harry. The Fat Lady gave the two of them an even odder look as they set off down the corridor.

The piece of parchment detailing Ginny's "illness" lay on the desk where Hermione had left it.


End file.
